University of Mississippi Medical Center v. Corlexia Carter

Summary

The Mississippi Supreme Court held that Corlexia Carter's medical-negligence claims against UMMC were time barred by the Mississippi Tort Claims Act's one-year limitations period because, under the discovery rule, her own suspicions of negligent conduct — voiced to her mother in the hospital shortly after her January 19, 2018 shunt procedure — started the limitations clock more than a year before her notice of claim. The court further held that her later, self-serving affidavit could not cure contradictory deposition testimony or create a genuine issue of material fact, and rejected her latent-injury and medical-records-access arguments, and accordingly reversed the denial of summary judgment and rendered judgment for UMMC. Presiding Justice Coleman, specially concurring and joined by three justices, agreed with the result but urged the Court to also overrule Barnes and Caves for judicially grafting a discovery rule onto the MTCA.